A 16-year-old now shares the lead. Andy Woodward beat defending champion Fabiano Caruana in round five in Saint Louis to share the US Championship lead, ChessBase reported. Only one of the round's eight decisive games went to the older player, Chess.com noted.
Woodward and Wesley So now have 3.5/5 each. Caruana, Awonder Liang and Jeffery Xiong sit half a point behind them after round five.
Four of the six games in the open section were decisive. Xiong, Ray Robson and Abhimanyu Mishra joined Woodward among the winners.
In the US Women's Chess Championship, 17-year-old IM Alice Lee is on 4.5/5 and a full point clear after a win with black over IM Tatev Abrahamyan, her fourth in a row.
Across the two sections, Chess.com counted eight decisive results in 12 games, a round the site called the bloodiest of this year's championships.
"I've beaten some low 2700s, but this was the first time beating Fabi," Woodward said in his interview with GM Maurice Ashley, as reported by Chess.com.
Woodward's win over Caruana
With white, Woodward built a lasting edge out of the Ragozin and pressed slowly, in a game Chess.com picked as its Game of the Day.
His bishop pair hemmed in Caruana's pieces while his own steadily improved, ChessBase observed. Both outlets added that the conversion was not perfect.
Caruana had begun the round tied for first with So and never found real counterplay, according to ChessBase.
Woodward's opponent is a five-time US champion, per ChessBase. Chess.com called him the third-highest-rated player ever.
Woodward earned the grandmaster title at 13, ChessBase recalled. He won the 2025 US Junior Championship and, earlier in 2026, the Challengers in Wijk aan Zee.
His run in Saint Louis stands at three wins and two draws.
So kept pace by holding a Berlin Defense against Grigoriy Oparin with black. Liang and Sam Shankland drew after a Dragon Sicilian ended in a level endgame.
Xiong, Robson and Mishra win
Xiong beat Levon Aronian with black, his first win ever against him. He has yet to draw a game and now has three wins and two losses.
Robson, 31, was the only older player to defeat a younger one in either section. He beat 23-year-old Hans Niemann in a rook endgame settled by an outside passed a-pawn.
Mishra needed more than 100 moves with rook and pawn against bishop to beat Sam Sevian, the day's longest game and his first win of the event.
Alice Lee pulls clear
Lee drew defending champion IM Carissa Yip in round one and has won all four games since.
Her closest pursuers are WIM Rachael Li, FM Megan Paragua and WGM Thalia Cervantes. Li beat WGM Jennifer Yu, Paragua beat IM Nazi Paikidze and Cervantes drew GM Irina Krush.
"Because the results are good, I kind of feel like I can keep it up," Lee told Ashley when asked if the lead made her nervous, as Chess.com reported.
Yip arrived as the top US woman but has two draws and three losses and has shed 24 rating points.
On the live rating list, Lee is now US No. 1 and No. 14 among women in the world, Chess.com reported.
IM Rose Atwell handed Yip her third loss with a game Chess.com called a brilliancy, though Atwell herself is only on 2/5.
"I know she's not in the best form, but neither am I," Atwell told Chess.com.
Round six and beyond
Chess.com's round-six pairings had So facing Mishra and Woodward meeting Niemann. The two co-leaders play each other in round eight.
Practicing long games on Chessiverse
Woodward's win came from slow pressure rather than one tactical blow.
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